DUBAI If you thought getting rid of those massage parlour cards on your car windows was annoying, then this one will leave you seething.
After bombarding motorists with suggestive business cards offering massage services, the masseurs of Dubai are now resorting to a whole new way to make their message stick out, as Jordanian Dana Al Sabti found out recently.
“I was shocked to see something sparkle in the sun on my car from a distance. Then I realised on closer look that it was actually a magnet advertising a massage centre with its name and contact number on it,” said the mother of two, who discovered the small circular magnetic badge clinging to her front right door on her return from lunch at a café on Shaikh Zayed Road. “This was the first time I had parked my car here and we were out for barely an hour. I am guessing those who park here regularly must be facing this problem every day,” added the marketing manager of a Dubai-based relocation firm.
Illegal
The Department of Economic Development in Dubai (DED) last year said that advertising on business cards is illegal, and under an agreement between the Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Interior, companies are not permitted to let employees distribute business cards on streets.
“However, if their latest marketing gimmick is anything to go by, then it seems they hardly care about the rules. What I am more concerned about now is that such magnets can even cause external damage to cars,” said another motorist who spotted a similar magnet stuck to the front door of his car as well.
Until last year, motorists were used to seeing business cards - some evidently with racy photos of semi-nude women – lining their windows in a matter of hours across Dubai, especially places like International City and pockets of Bur Dubai and Karama.
“Thankfully, there’s nothing obscene about this new thing, but it’s still an irritant. Also, it’s hard to believe such a thing can happen in front of cafés on Shaikh Zayed Road,” said another expat woman who saw the same thing last weekend.
